Restrictions to Access

Original manuscript in vault storage. Researchers wishing to examine the original must receive permission from the senior staff member on duty. Retrieval may require one working day.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the George Moses Horton Poem #4799-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Swann Galleries in April 1996 (Acc. 96030).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Tim Pyatt, April 1996

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Conscious editing by Nancy Kaiser, July 2024: Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, collection overview.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American authors--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• African American poets--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• American literature--African American authors--19th century.
• American poetry--African American authors--19th century.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Dixon, Henry A.
• Dixon, Martha Sugg.
• Enslaved persons' writings, American--North Carolina.
• Enslaved persons--North Carolina.
• Horton, George Moses, 1798?-ca. 1880.
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.

• See list at the end of the inventory.

George Moses Horton (circa 1797-circa 1883) was a poet who was enslaved by William Horton, a white farmer in Chatham County, N.C. Horton taught himself to read and compose poetry. By the age of 20, he began visiting the University of North Carolina and selling to the students acrostic love poems based on the names of their girlfriends. His literary efforts were encouraged by a number of influential individuals, including the novelist Caroline Lee Hentz, North Carolina Governor and later University President David L. Swain, and newspaperman Horace Greeley.

Hentz helped Horton publish his first work, "Liberty and Slavery," in the Lancaster [Mass.] Gazette on 8 April 1829. This was the first known poem written by an enslaved person protesting his status. Horton's "The Hope of Liberty," also published in 1829, was the first publication in the South by an African American writer.

[Adapted from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. For further information, see The Black Poet by Richard Walser (1966).]

Additional Horton manuscripts can be found in the following collections:

From the Pettigrew Family Papers (#592), seven poems, 1836 and undated (folder 568):

"The Emigrant Girl"

"On Ghosts"

An acrostic (Doctrine Davenport) "Mr. Davenport's address to his lady"

An acrostic (Mary M. Davenport) "His lady's reply"

An acrostic (Mary Pettigrew Davenport) "To their little daughter"

"The Pleasures of a College Life"

An acrostic (Julia Shepard) "On the pleasures of beauty"

From the Gillespie and Wright Family Papers (#275), two acrostics on the same sheet, undated (folder 17):

"Lo Twilight memorys sweet and pleasing beam"

"Joy may revive in sorrows lonely vale"

From the David L. Swain Papers (#706), three letters, 1844, 1853, and undated:

To: Gov. Swain from George M. Horton of colour, 3 September 1844

To: [Horace Greely] from George M. Horton of colour, 11 September 1853

To: Gov. Swain from George M. Horton, poet, [undated]

For additional information about other Horton holdings in Wilson Library see George Moses Horton Materials at Wilson Special Collections Library.

An original poem titled "Departing Love" by George Moses Horton, a poet who was enslaved by William Horton, a white farmer in Chatham County, N.C. The poem was commissioned by the Reverend Henry A. Dixon of Chapel Hill, N.C., for his bride to be, Martha Sugg. A contemporary transcription, dated 1 August 1856, is also included. The description for this collection in the Swann Galleries auction catalogue attributes the transcription to Martha Sugg Dixon.

• Separated Folder SEP-4799/1